Synthetic aperture acoustic measurements of stationary suspended cinder block and surrogate substitutes

A synthetic aperture acoustic approach is used as a standoff method to assess material properties of a typical cinder block, referred to as a concrete masonry unit (CMU), and a variety of CMU surrogates. The objective is to identify anomalies in CMU wall surfaces. The acoustic specular return and phase change across the blocks are the fundamental measurements of interest. The CMU surrogates are created from commercially available closed cell expanding foam. Results from three test articles are presented that show potentially exploitable differences in terms of acoustic magnitude and acoustic phase response between the surrogates and typical CMUs. The test articles are; a typical CMU, a foam block, and a foam block with an embedded steel object. All test articles are similar in size and shape, and both foam blocks are covered in grout so that surface appearance closely matches that of a CMU. The results show that each of the test articles has characteristics that may be used for discrimination and anomaly detection.